Sergio Perez had a race to forget in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Red Bull's new signing for this season qualified on the front row of the grid ahead of his teammate, but an early spin behind the safety car earned him a 10-second stop/go penalty for overtaking on his return to the track. Then following the red flag restart after George Russell and Valtteri Bottas' collision, the Mexican spun again, tumbling down the order and eventually finishing the race out of the points in 11th place. Speaking in a Q&A with Red Bull ahead of this weekend's race at Portimao for the Portuguese Grand Prix, Perez said that the race in Imola was a missed opportunity for the team. "The way we work at Red Bull, we prepare our race weekend to take the maximum from it because we know if we do everything right we have a realistic chance of winning the race. Everyone in the team is also pushing really hard to try to improve the RB16B so we can maximise every single weekend with both cars – that’s the target," he said. "Imola was a missed opportunity as I think we should have finished 1-2 but hopefully we can achieve that this weekend." Despite the woes in Italy, Perez said he was hopeful of a better result in Portugal this weekend, with the track more forgiving for drivers new to teams than Imola. "Imola is a pretty tough track to get on top of and maximise, especially if you’ve recently swapped teams, but in Portugal I hope to be in the mix and get everything out of the car. We know what the car is capable of and the goal is to deliver on its potential. "The positive is that the pace is there, we just need to continue building on our form and take another step forwards."
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